38 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



of Holderness, that the boggy earth was found in sinkmg a well a 

 mile from the sea; but the same circumstance might occur many miles 

 from the sea; for the woody marshes, Avhich produced the peatbogs, 

 not only existed in the neighbourhood of Hull, and on the banks of 

 the Humber, but extended northward almost to the vicinity of Drif- 

 field. We not only read of marshes at Saltagh, Kayingham, Sutton, 

 and Mai'fleet (anciently Mereflete); but find them also at Weel, 

 Beverley, Leckonfiekl, all around Melsa abbey, and even as far as 

 Watton priory. Melsa is described as in the midst of woods, waters, 

 and marshes.* Beverley was similarly situated ; for its Saxon name 

 indicated that it stood in the woods of Deira;t and we find from 

 Domesday, that its waters were abundant, for there was "a fishery of 

 seven thousand eels " here. At Cottinghara were five fisheries of 

 eight thousand eels. In the Earl of Morton's land at Leckonfield, 

 there was a fishery yielding four thousand eels, and in William de 

 Percy's land, at the same town, ten fisheries yielding two thousand 

 four hundred eels. A great part of the woods of Deira, as well as of 

 its marshes, remained at the era of the Survey; for we find at Bever- 

 ley wood pasture three miles long, and a mile and a half broad; at 

 Leckonfield, in Earl Morton's land, wood pasture one mile long and 

 one mile broad; and in Percy's land, wood pasture two miles long 

 and two broad ; not to speak of other large tracts of wood in the same 

 quarter.^ The names of Woodmansea near Beverley, and Rotsea 

 near Watton, bespeak the existence of meres in those places. Indeed 

 Watton itself derived its name from the ivetiiess of its situation; being 

 surrounded, like Melsa, by waters and' marshes. § 



Woods, marshes, and fisheries of eels abounded also at the era 

 of Domesday, in the neighbourhood of Howden and Cave, and in 



* Nemoribuset fiutelis consitum, aquis et paludibus cinctum. Diigdale's Monast. I.p. 793. 



t On&yjiapu&a. Bed. Hist. L. V. c. 3. 



X Bawdwen's Domesday, p. 55, SO, 169, 202, &c. 



§ Its Saxon name was lUerasan — If'tt-toivn. Bed. Hist. L. V. c. 3. 



